Converted handguns - originally designed to fire blanks - are currently responsible for more shooting incidents in the UK than "real" handguns.
Police figures reveal there were 64 discharges from converted models in 2023, compared with 42 from real equivalent weapons.
Converted handguns were responsible for four deaths and 17 serious injuries.
A government ballistics expert says the issue is "a top-line threat priority".
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) - which provided the provisional figures in response to a Freedom of Information request from BBC's File On 4 - says there were also seven incidents in 2023 in which a converted sub-machine gun was fired.
Blank firing guns are produced for a number of reasons - such as for use in theatre or film, as starting pistols, or at firearms' demonstration events.
Instead of firing bullets, they use cartridges filled with gunpowder, which make a gun-like noise and a spark.
"The issue is that they look like the real thing," says Gregg Taylor, who is forensic technical lead at the National Ballistics Intelligence Service (Nabis), which analyses firearms discharges for all 45 UK police forces.
"Sometimes they even include genuine parts from genuine weapons," he adds. "Therefore you've got 90% of what you already need to then go on - and do the extra 10% to convert."
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Remember: Banning Guns Makes Them Go Away
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Since gun confiscation drove the Chavs to use knives which drove the law givers to outlaw pointy knives, will this revelation about starter pistols outlaw starter pistols? Will we now see foot races started by popping a balloon or swinging a slapstick? (a sort of cricket bat with a hinged piece of wood partway up the bat that will clap against the longer part). Considering how the United Kingdom* has gone lo these last hundred years, that's how I would bet.
ReplyDelete*Where Great Britain used to be.